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Miao Guan
The Miao Guan, or Spirit Dragons, is an order of the Dalou'laoshi dedicated to direct mental control of the self and of others to maintain peace and order. They hide within the New World Order, a Convention of the Technocratic Union. Paradigm The Miao Guan focus on their own mind instead of technomantic tools, using logic and reason as well as breathing techniques, body postures and internal alchemy to shape their own internal chi. At first, this chi is cultivated inwards, to protect their own mind, before allowing them to follow the natural flow of chi outside their body to reach out towards others. Some compare their abilities to that of psychics, but the Spirit Dragons know that their talents are more far reaching. Paramount for the Miao Guan is peace. Many elder members vividly recall the horrors of World War II and are determined to let such a thing not happen again. War among the East Asian nations is to be avoided at all cost. In the same manner, public unrest is seen as an unwanted manifestation of "free will", which they see as a poisonous western concept. Drawing on the ideology of the Zi Guang, the Miao Guan imagine the people of Asia as a hapharzadous collective "group mind" that needs to be ordered via the right impetus. Nationalism, duty and fear are such methods with whom the Spirit Dragons discipline nations and keep them from each others throats. The Miao Guan focus almost exclusively on the Sphere of Mind. Organization The current leadership of the Spirit Dragons resides at Beijing in China. Below that, members are divided into cells ranging from three to ten agents that are spread across the whole Middle Kingdom. Culture Within the Five Elemental Dragons, the Miao Guan have the task of protecting its members against Control and the social conditioning employed by their allies. The Spirit Dragons have their own techniques of ensuring obedience and secrecy from their own recruits as well as those of the other orders, but keep the exact method a secret. Every recruit of the Dalou'laoshi has to undergo the training of the Spirit Dragons to be prepared for his service. The Spirit Dragons do not only act as teachers, but also as inquisitors and interrogators. In most cases, the Miao Guan are not interested in detail knowledge, but in motivations, so that they can experience that motivation themselves and reconstruct the mental workings of their victims within their own minds. Even shen are not exempt from their rigour. The distaste the Miao Guan have for modern technology is well-documented and the Spirit Dragons look down upon their allies for relying on such crude tools. They actively work to keep the technological level of the East Asian nations low, but find themselves fighting a losing battle, as even rural communities gain access to modern technologies. Despite this, there are reports of Miao Guan who have managed to project their mind into machines like computers. References * , p. 103-109, 124-125 Category:Mage: The Ascension glossary